A court in Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria’s socially conservative north, has ordered two TikTok celebrities to get married after they posted videos of themselves passionately kissing, officials told AFP on Tuesday.
A magistrate court on Monday instructed Kano’s sharia police, known as the Hisbah, to within 60 days solemnise the marriage between the two influencers, who had posted “indecent” content.
“The magistrate court gave the order for the Hisbah to join the man and the woman in marriage since they are so deeply in love as to make romantic displays on TikTok,” Baba-Jibo Ibrahim, Kano state judicial spokesman, told AFP.
Kano state is one of a dozen predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria where sharia law operates alongside common law.
Videos of Idris Mai Wushirya and Basira Yar Guda circulated on TikTok showing them cuddling and kissing, drawing criticism among some Kano residents.
Mai Wushirya, who has several times run foul with authorities for his videos, was arrested and remanded in custody ahead of the ruling. Yar Guda went into hiding.
A Hisbah official confirmed they received the court’s order and had already started preparations for the wedding.
“Although the court said we should conduct the marriage within 60 days, we are determined to do it as soon as possible,” Abba Sufi, Hisbah’s director-general, told AFP.
Mai Wushiryar’s parents were summoned by the Hisbah Monday where they gave their “explicit consent” for the wedding, while the Hisbah was making efforts to contact Yar Guda’s family, Sufi said.
The Kano state government was planning to purchase a house for that prospective couple to meet the bride’s condition that the couple not live in a rented home, he said.
Kano is home to a local film industry dubbed “Kannywood”, said to produce more than 200 films each month in the local Hausa language and part of Nigeria’s broader “Nollywood” cinema ecosystem.
Kannywood has long been under close watch by Muslim clerics and government officials.
But the growing use of social media by Kannywood players for skits and songs has prompted the censors board to extend its authority to social media — arresting and jailing several TikTokers in recent years.
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